


The Dreamscapers

by jemakku (flopyxing)



Series: The Dreamscapers [1]
Category: EXO (Band), NCT (Band)
Genre: Dreamscapes, Dreamsharing, East Asian Mythology, Experimental Style, Multi, POV Multiple, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-08-15 07:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8048398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flopyxing/pseuds/jemakku
Summary: "The longer you dream, the more you forget."





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> China-line retain their stage names for a good reason. As for DoJae...I'm just used to calling them 'Doyoung' and 'Jaehyun'. Han Kyunghyun is a model from ESteem and appeared in NCT U's [Without You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6OcvS54KYQ) music video.
> 
> Thanks to Diana for helping me brainstorm this monster of an au back in its conception. And thanks to Iya for being my guinea pig again.

The longer you know someone and the longer you spend time with them, the easier it becomes to communicate. The most hidden of emotions that lie beyond a smile that never reaches their eyes or the carefully composed expression on their face could be found instead in the stiffness of the shoulders or the split-second wink directed just for you.

Often enough, words need only remain unspoken, a question need barely rise from the depths of your thoughts, and they would instantly provide you with an answer in a special secret way that only you’re able to decipher.

Doyoung knew all that, and yet, without warning, he took another look at the girl he had just professed his love to for the fifth time in just as many minutes. They were both leaning against the rails of a bridge. Breathless as they were from the impromptu race they just finished, they were still carrying a conversation, albeit a silent one.

Doyoung had been in the middle of basking in the glow of her happiness at his admission, his thumbs softly brushing her cheeks that were puffed up from smiling ear-to-ear, when he remembered that he was gay.

He pushed the thought aside quickly because she was saying something. She answered his declaration with one of her own, in the form of a long and sweet kiss that lit up rockets and fireworks in him. Surely he should be more surprised by his reaction. For the past twenty-one years, Doyoung had never found himself attracted to the opposite sex. At least, never physically.

But this show of being loved in return, with the passion of a new love and the familiarity of an old friend, brought so much joy to Doyoung he felt like he was in a dream.

This couldn’t be a mistake. His body and mind knew her, truly adored her. When their skin touch Doyoung burned. His heart sang. Whatever wrongness or awkwardness he was feeling was probably the part of his brain that could never see the glass as half full.

“What do you love about me?” Doyoung asked as he tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. His words were serious but his tone playful. They’ve been through this routine a million times.

She hummed and tilted her head, pretending to think hard. Doyoung let her because he wanted to use that time to press kisses along the length of her neck. “Your chiseled jaw?”

That made him pause. There were many ways to describe his jawline. Sharp, triangular, narrow… Chiseled was definitely not one of them. Chiseled was…

There was someone Doyoung would describe as having a chiseled jaw but he couldn’t put a name to the blurry face.

“Not my cute rabbit teeth?” Doyoung said, deciding that wracking his brain for some guy’s name when he couldn’t remember his soulmate’s was pointless. He nipped her skin for emphasis.

“I wouldn’t call them rabbit teeth, —. Your teeth are perfect.”

Doyoung pulled away from her. If he hadn’t been so hung up over her odd choice of description, he wouldn’t have noticed that she had been cut off. Like a choppy video, she had just skipped over his name without realizing that it shouldn’t have happened.

“What…?”

She tapped a finger on his nose and hummed questioningly. He opened his mouth and closed it almost immediately. Somehow, Doyoung couldn’t remember what he wanted to say. He shook his head and smiled.

He pushed himself off the metal railings. “Nothing. Just thinking that you’re going to lose this time.” Towards the end, his voice lifted until it was almost a shout. He closed his eyes and emptied his mind as best as he could as his feet carried him away from the confusing emotions.

 

  
˚ *  
.  
· ⊹ * ˚ · ˚  
* ✧ ˚  
· * ˚ ✧ ✫ ✧  
* . .  
* ⊹ .

 

Jaehyun didn’t like them calling his best friend, ‘the patient’, instead of by name. The Doyoung he knew was strong. Dependable. Ever since they were kids, he was always the one who took the lead. Jaehyun was always the sidekick, the one dragged along for a new adventure whether he wanted to or not. Doyoung was also the most stubborn person Jaehyun knew; his current predicament was proof of that.

He thought about Doyoung back in his suite. Away from the uncomfortable office chair he had been sitting in for the past few hours, away from the wall to his side where x-rays of Doyoung’s brain hung, and away from the pile of non-disclosure agreements Jaehyun had to sign before he could even try to save his best friend. He thought about Doyoung lying unconscious in a standard issue hospital bed while the rest of the people involved in the incident (minus one) were six feet under. Unconscious for the past three months, but alive.

There was nothing in the job description that demanded Doyoung to protect his boss in the case of a kidnapping attempt. A personal assistant wasn’t a bodyguard. It was why Vice President Do Kyungsoo decided to take personal interest in his assistant’s recovery and why Doyoung was put in a VIP suite in the Do’s private clinic with ‘the very best team in Cheon’ working on his case. It was never explicitly stated that it would be a team of doctors and that was a red flag Jaehyun never noticed until now.

Before all of this had happened, Jaehyun had zero knowledge and interest in the science of dreams. For a mega corporation like Do Inc. to pour funds into that field of research was a gross indulgence. There were other things the money could be used for, like education or improving the standard of living for the citizens of Cheon, especially since the company was their government.

Then Jaehyun was told that a “Nightmare” was keeping Doyoung trapped inside his dreams.

 

  
˚ *  
.  
· ⊹ * ˚ · ˚  
* ✧ ˚  
· * ˚ ✧ ✫ ✧  
* . .  
* ⊹ .

 

He could still remember the first thing she said to him. It was a simple hello.

She was a child. Curious, brave, and perhaps foolish. A human child. No human had ever seen him unless he wanted them to. It was with that knowledge that he wondered if maybe his self-imposed loneliness had taken its toll.

He shifted his body to mirror a boy he’d visited in the nearby town just the night before. It was dangerous but the boy’s dreams were the freshest in his mind. Tilting his head into view, he searched for a glimmer of recognition in her eyes in case she knew the boy he was mimicking.

Satisfied with the way her inquisitive stare didn’t waver, he stepped around the tree and offered a greeting of his own.

“My name is Han Kyunghyun,” she said, enunciating clearly and a bit too loudly as if rehearsed. “I’m five years and four months old.” She held up her hands, one of them showing four fingers.

He wondered, not for the first time, what a fragile human child was doing this deep in the woods. He wasn’t interested in feeding on her, not so soon after his last meal. And he wanted to babysit her even less.

_What was he doing involving himself with this child?_

His fingers curled at strength of his self-admonishment. The roughness of the tree bark underneath his human fingers pulled him back to the present. From the frown on her face, he could tell that he had taken too long to reply.

“I'm,” he paused, floundering for a name. He grabbed onto the first clear memory that flashed through his mind, a dream of a boy chasing another boy, maybe a friend, and shouting a name. “Moon Taeil. I'm five years old too,” he lied.

 

  
˚ *  
.  
· ⊹ * ˚ · ˚  
* ✧ ˚  
· * ˚ ✧ ✫ ✧  
* . .  
* ⊹ .

  

Winwin closed the tab detailing his mission brief. It was a straightforward mission: enter the Carrier’s subconscious, wait until a connection is formed, then neutralize the threat. Estimated time of completion: one hour. A job so laughably easy for Subject #10, it could have been a drill.

Even so, Winwin handed the tablet back to his teammate and fellow ‘Subject Number’, Kun. “I don’t think I can do this,” he said in an almost-whisper. But before Kun could reply, Winwin pressed on. “I’m not good at talking to people and this guy’s supposed to be more than a thousand years old, right? He’d crush me.

“And even if I wake up when I’m done, I’m just gonna be deadweight. After tomorrow, we’re all gonna be in danger and I just… This is too big for me. I can’t do it.” He instinctively flinched when Kun moved his arm, too used to being hit on the back of his head by the same person currently patting his head.

“Professor Zhang already took a huge risk when he insisted they used a Jumper from his...repertoire?” The last was directed at Yuta, their senior, who just shrugged. Yuta was the most fluent in Korean out of all of them, but there were still things he didn’t know.

“Whatever,” Kun said, shrugging as well. “In any case, you were chosen and that’s that.” He looked like he wanted to add something, probably a backhanded encouragement, but he crossed his arms and turned his head away when Yuta squatted down so his and Winwin’s eyes were level. Winwin’s heart sank lower. He rarely saw Yuta without a smile.

“Just focus on our mission. I trust you to get the job done so can you trust me to make sure you’ll get out safe?” Out of habit, Winwin closed his eyes and leaned into the warm hand cupping his face.

Yuta didn’t answer when he nodded. He only brushed a thumb back and forth across his cheek, so Winwin opened his eyes and held his gaze. “Yes. I trust you. And Kun. And Professor Zhang. And the rest of the team.”

In that moment, Winwin thought that if anything, the soft but firm press of Yuta’s lips and his steady grip on Winwin’s arm and waist was worth facing his fears.


	2. Chapter 2

 

From the enclosed viewing platform above the dreamsharing room, Winwin watched quietly as the Carrier was being hooked up to the large cylinder tank at the center of the room. Next to him was another bed. Its occupant, like the Carrier, was a young man. He was the Host and had been brought in already dreaming, molten dream-essence flowing through the tubes connecting his brain to the cylinder. 

Through the glass wall and the considerable distance between the viewing platform and the lower level, Winwin listened as the attending scientist gave the Carrier a false debriefing. “The procedure shouldn’t take more than two hours since we’re just going to see how you’ll assimilate to a shared dreamscape.”

Rather than looking at the attendant or watching himself being poked and prodded, the Carrier turned his attention towards the next bed. His face was so set with determination that it made Winwin’s back itch in anticipation. “I understand,” the Carrier said, his gaze fixed firmly on the Host.

 _You really don’t_ , Winwin thought unhappily.

“Hey, Subject #10! Don’t you have anything better to do than stand around looking useless?”

Even though he didn’t show it, Winwin’s heart lurched at the rough words that came with the familiar voice. He didn’t mean to eavesdrop. Curiosity had just gotten the better of him. But that wasn’t what he had been asked.

Winwin turned away from the glass window and bowed to the man with a hand over his heart. “Good afternoon, Professor Zhang. I do have something better to do. My mission will be starting at approximately half an hour,” he said robotically. 

One step behind the professor was Yuta. Like Winwin, Yuta was already in his combat gear. Yuta wouldn’t be entering the dreamscape, but would be standing by as backup in case a Nightmare escaped into reality. On paper that is. Winwin’s eyes flickered quickly away from Yuta and back to Professor Zhang before he’d melt from Yuta’s warm smile. This would be the last time he would need to pretend to be emotionless, he reminded himself. 

Professor Zhang waved his greeting aside. He ushered Winwin past a few lab assistants and towards the walkway leading to the airlock right above the cylindrical tank, with Yuta following close behind. “It’s almost time and you’re still lounging around?” Professor Zhang said irritably. “You should’ve already been on standby by now.”

Winwin’s apology gets drowned in the whooshing sound the door made as it closed behind them. The walkway was covered and had no cameras. It was there that Professor Zhang broke character. 

“This is it, huh?” he said, throwing both arms around Winwin and Yuta. Professor Zhang’s stern expression had softened and his voice was no longer icy. Winwin nodded in agreement when Yuta said, “We’re ready, Prof..” This would be the last time they’d pretend they weren’t family, but a scientist with his test subjects.

“Make me proud, boys.”

“We always do,” Yuta said cockily. It was another thing Winwin admired him for. He himself was still too nervous to think about anything other than worst case scenarios.

Every one of them ended with both him and Yuta being killed. He could imagine them letting Professor Zhang live, but he wouldn’t just lose his job or whatever influence and good standing he had, he’d lose his life’s work: his children, as he called them.

Maybe he sensed Winwin’s anxiousness because Professor Zhang squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. “That’s right. No matter what happens, I’ll always be proud of you.”

To Winwin, that sounded too much like a goodbye. He clenched his gloved fists before shoving them in his pockets. Neither of them said much after that.

Almost too quickly, he went through a last-minute inspection and debriefing before stepping inside the airlock. With the door sealed tight, Yuta and Professor Zhang was gone from his view. Winwin prayed that it wouldn’t be the last time he saw them.

The indicator lights started flashing one by one. When all the lights lit up, he closed his eyes and willed his form to dissipate.

“Subject #10, commencing mission,” Winwin said under his breath. The door under his disappearing feet then opened where the dream-essence welcomed him eagerly.

 

˚ *  
.  
· ⊹ * ˚ · ˚  
* ✧ ˚  
· * ˚ ✧ ✫ ✧  
* . .  
* ⊹ .

 

Usually on the last day of exams, having overcome the final hurdle obstructing them from the freedom of summer vacation, Jaehyun and his group of friends would already be out in the city to celebrate. But today was only the second to last day so only Doyoung was there with him. They were walking home silently, both because they were busy savoring their popsicles and because the hot and muggy weather was sapping them of almost all of their energy.

Jaehyun had his backpack slung on one shoulder, swapping sides whenever the strap rubbed through his damp shirt enough to make him feel uncomfortable. Shirt untucked and necktie hanging loosely around his neck, he looked nothing like the model student he was known as. Doyoung fared no better. His shirt was unbuttoned almost to his chest, necktie long since shoved into his bag. 

He wasn’t sure which was more painful, watching Doyoung sweat as he worked his tongue and lips around a phallic object or going straight home for another cramming session without consideration for his overworked brain. Jaehyun stopped internally lamenting his shitty life long enough to notice a shadow moving at the corner of his eye.

It had happened a few times since they left school but Jaehyun had been ignoring it. This time, he stopped in his tracks and quickly turned his head around to find...nothing out of the ordinary. Other than a stray cat snoozing under a car, the street was totally empty.

“What’s up?” Doyoung asked, popsicle still in his mouth. Jaehyun was probably really losing it if he was starting to feel jealous of food.

“I dunno. I just feel like we’re being followed.” Jaehyun resumed walking, distractedly licking the sticky liquid trailing down his fingers. He kept looking back every time the heavy weight of a stare prickled his skin.

Doyoung was less disturbed. “Just chill. It’s probably another girl taking stalker pictures of Flower Boy Jung Jaehyun,” he joked.

Jaehyun choked on the flavored ice then laughed. “Must be so nice to not have to worry about girls,” he said. As soon as the words left his mouth, he felt like cringing. He wanted to take them back. He shouldn’t have said it like that.

Predictably, Doyoung elbowed his side none too gently even as he laughed along. “Fuck you,” he said casually.

Their chuckles faded to silence. They were both still smiling, but Jaehyun felt awful. It had only been about a year since Doyoung came out to him, the memory of seeing the fear of rejection in Doyoung’s eyes still fresh. And Jaehyun had made it into a joke.

“Hyung, I’m sorry,” Jaehyun said quietly.  

“Leave it. It’s fine.” Doyoung’s voice was steady. Maybe there was an undercurrent of anger, or maybe Jaehyun was just imagining it because he wanted to be punished.

“It’s not. I’m an asshole.”

“Whatever,” Doyoung said dismissively, effectively ending the conversation. The damage was done. The popsicle had melted. The milk was spilled. Jaehyun wondered if like a broken plate put back together, there was another crack in their decade-long friendship that could never really disappear.

Spotting a trash can, Jaehyun stopped walking. He plucked Doyoung’s popsicle stick and tossed it along with his own. “Let’s go to the arcade,” Jaehyun said.

Doyoung eyed him carefully. “We have exams tomorrow.” 

Jaehyun tugged insistently at Doyoung’s sleeve with his sticky fingers. “Aw, come on, Hyung. Aren’t you sick of studying? I’ll let you choose what we’re going to play,” he said in the cutesy voice Doyoung never said no to.

The silence stretched on uncomfortably long. Just as Jaehyun’s smile started wobbling because his cheeks hurt, Doyoung sighed loudly. “Get ready to have your ass kicked in all of them.”

Getting to the arcade took a while and they had a few more quarrels along the way. Thankfully, those were petty and easier to laugh off. That, coupled with his resolve to make up to Doyoung for his slip up, had Jaehyun completely distracted from the weird feeling that had been bothering him. Up until they reached their usual air hockey table.

It was a school day so he had expected the arcade to be empty. Except, out of all the tables, the only other people there were using _theirs_ , and that the person playing against a teenage girl whom Jaehyun didn’t recognize, was Doyoung himself.

Jaehyun stood frozen in shock. He wanted to blink. He wanted to rub his eyes and find that yes, he was hallucinating. That the weather and his changing feelings for his most important person had gotten to him. When he could finally turn his head to look at where Doyoung was supposed to be, right by his side, he was met with more confusion.

The young man in Doyoung’s place was another person Jaehyun didn’t recognize. He was cute although he didn’t have Doyoung’s adorable rabbit teeth. He had plump lips and the top of short his hair was tied to resemble an apple stem. Despite his soft appearance, he was dressed in all-black ensemble with multiple belts and buckles holding what looked like weapons. Even more bizarre, the person had large, black feathery wings that moved out of sync with his breathing.

Before Jaehyun could say anything, he reached towards his thigh holster. The moment his fingers wrapped around the pistol grip, Jaehyun threw himself at the person. Just as their bodies were about to collide, Jaehyun suddenly found himself sitting on the couch in his and Doyoung’s shared apartment.

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

The sunlight was almost blinding after the dimness of the arcade. It felt less like they were stepping out of a building and more like stepping into a furnace. She remained unaffected, pulling Doyoung along with her by the elbow when he stopped walking to let his eyes adjust. 

“Come on, —! I know you’re bad with the summer heat but it’s just a short walk from here.”

There it was again, the strange lapse in his memory that happens whenever their names were mentioned. Doyoung had more or less forgot about it during the course of their arcade date. He had won so many games in a row which was also strange but made him feel great instead of confused.

“Where are we going?” He didn’t understand why they were leaving the mall to get lunch.

“I was thinking we could go to —?” She was talking about a fast-food restaurant. Somehow he knew that much. 

“Are you kidding me?” he said, throwing his head back. “You want to go to my workplace on a precious day off?”

Now Doyoung really had no idea what he was talking about. He didn’t work in the F&B industry. He was the personal assistant to the youngest son of the Do family. It wasn’t his first choice but finding work straight after uni had been difficult. It was only through his family’s connections and Doyoung’s desperation that he ended up in such a strange position. 

In more ways than one… 

Doyoung lost his train of thought when she clung onto his arm and pouted at him. “But that’s the only place that makes the best burgers!” she said in the cutesy voice he never said no to.

The minute Doyoung relented, they were already at the shop’s front. “Everything just works out for you, doesn’t it?” he said with a mock-frown. Doyoung was about to raise his hand to activate the motion sensor but stopped. Without letting go of his arm, she had somehow wrapped it around her shoulders.

She knew he was uncomfortable with PDA. _Especially_ around his coworkers. Doyoung sighed as loudly as he could before he used his other arm and lead her inside. He was going to let it slide because he loved her.

“Wow, this place is packed,” she said. “I guess we’ll need to wait for a while.” That startled Doyoung. He tried to catch her eyes but they were fixed firmly on the menu board above them. “Hey, what do you think I should get?”

“I thought you wanted a burger?” That wasn’t what Doyoung meant to say. He wanted to point out that the place was empty of people save for the person manning the cashier. That he thinks maybe they should go somewhere else.

“No, I think I’ll have something else,” she said, oblivious to his growing panic.

Doyoung’s eyes fell on the employee who had been quiet the entire time. The man was unfamiliar to him. Despite all the strange things that had been going on, nothing had been an actual problem. Except Doyoung really didn’t recognize this person at all despite supposedly being a fellow employee.

Even worse, the man only had eyes for her. Doyoung bristled. Couldn’t he see that he was obviously her boyfriend? Her partner? The love of her life? He was about to tell the guy to cut it out only to clap a hand over his mouth and bend over.

Aside from his bleached hair and a stupid look on his face, there was nothing out of the ordinary with him. But it was wrong. It was all wrong. Doyoung felt sick.

Doyoung slammed a hand on the counter, he absently noted that it was no longer a counter but the flip clock he bought for Jaehyun, and groaned in pain.

He heard a familiar voice shout his name, not his given name or a weird blank but a nickname, right before he heard the sound of a gun being shot and the sound of objects crashing into each other.

Doyoung was on the floor gasping, his body pinned under a much larger and muscular body, his lungs desperately trying to get him to breathe, to breathe in the smell of home. His mind was in a disarray because it was Jaehyun, it was Jaehyun with his chiseled jaw, it was Jaehyun chanting, “Hyung, are you okay?”, it was Jaehyun, his other half, his unrequited love.

It was Jaehyun and they were in their apartment and there was a monster in their apartment! It wasn’t just a monster, where the restaurant employee stood was a grotesque beast with the head of an elephant, the body of a bear, the legs of a tiger, and the tail of an ox.

“Oh my god, it’s Frankenstein,” Doyoung choked out.

“No, Frankenstein was the doctor. That’s a chimera,” Jaehyun said in an all-too-calm voice.

Doyoung pulled a face and raised his fist to hit Jaehyun for not knowing how to read the situation when he himself was reminded of the danger they were in. “Move!” Doyoung screamed as he pushed Jaehyun off. He rolled them aside just in time to avoid being crushed to death by a fallen angel.

Once Doyoung got his bearings, he saw that the person resembled less like an angel and more like a demon. He had large, black wings, its feathers ruffled and singed, tendrils of smoke wafting in the air. His eyes were red and glowing, light trails hanging in the air as he moved, like the taillights of cars in a long exposure photo.

Doyoung instinctively reached for Jaehyun when those unearthly eyes looked at them. “Get out of here!” the person shouted before pulling out a set of thin blade knives from his belt and throwing it at the chimera.  It let out a bellow of pain and that was all Doyoung and Jaehyun needed to hear before they were both scrambling for their front door.

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments and theories. I've been refraining from replying to them to avoid spoilers but now that this chapter is up I'll do so after I've slept. The longest one by far so bear with me ♡

 

It was easy for him to be Moon Taeil when Kyunghyun only came around once every summer to visit family. She was from Cheon, the floating city built by Do back in the 00s, a place he had never set foot on except in the dreams of those he fed on. Every summer since Kyunghyun could remember, she and her family would go down to Earth to visit her only living grandmother.

This grandmother was one of the few thousands of people in Korea who preferred to live in one of the towns near his forest because she was scared that one day, Cheon would fall from the sky.

“She’s weird but I love her so that’s okay,” Kyunghyun explained. He nodded his agreement but Taeil understood the grandmother’s fears. He mostly kept to his small pool of humans and hated change.

Although they had no means of communication for the first few summers —

“What do you mean you don’t have an interface ring!?” Kyunghyun gasped, scandalized.

“My family is poor,” Taeil lied.

“What’s 'poor'?”

It was then Taeil’s turn to look confused. He hadn’t known then that only affluent people lived in Cheon, even though it made sense once he thought about it. 

— they miraculously kept meeting by virtue of her stubbornness and his weak resolve.

The years passed. Kyunghyun got taller and while she was still very thin, her curves become more pronounced. She was becoming a woman and Taeil had to keep adjusting his shape accordingly.

Then there were the lies he was slowly finding it hard to both make and keep track of. One summer, Kyunghyun suddenly got very upset with Taeil.

“Please stop saying that,” she told him in a quiet voice.

Taeil was confused. Even though it was already dark out and Kyunghyun had covered her face with her hands, he could tell that she was blushing hard.

“What? ’Goodbye’?” he asked.

Her face became a shade darker. Taeil leaned closer so he could hear what she had just whispered, but that was the wrong move.

“I mean that stupid, 'Let’s see each other in our dreams,' you always tell me!” she yelled as she pushed him away roughly.

It took Taeil a few seconds to recover mostly because he was shocked that she managed to shove him to the ground. “But I say that every time!” he protested. He couldn’t see why this time was any different and told her so.

Again, that wasn’t the correct response and she left him with more questions than answers. Taeil had expected her to apologize the next day but she then left for Cheon without a word.

For a whole year, Taeil wrestled with a cycle of confusion, anger, guilt, and regret without anyone to consult with.

Taeil was born from the dreams of humans and had, in the years he had lived, never met any of his kind. He was an intensely private person and never mingled with folks who _could_ see him.

Then Taeil realized that he could break tradition and ask one of the friendlier yokwe for advice. That he effectively had ever since he showed himself to Kyunghyun.

The process of getting over his anxiety was a horrible experience he never wanted to relive but he did it because Kyunghyun was his friend and he wanted to understand her. The answer, as he found out at one of the gatherings in the forest clearing where creatures like them met up to socialize, was simple.

“She’s a lady, yeah?”Chanyeol, the ddokkaebi he had recently befriended said.

Clutching his cup of moonshine, Taeil nodded wordlessly.

Chanyeol barked out a laugh. “Then that’s your answer. Women!”

Thankfully, a gumiho who later introduced herself as Sunyoung, invited herself into the conversation because she took pity on Taeil and elaborated.

“She fancies you,” Sunyoung said. “She knows you’re not courting her, so she doesn’t appreciate you feeding her sweet lines.”

“I do like her though!” Taeil said.

Sunyoung rolled her eyes. “But do you _like_ like her?”

That gave Taeil pause. He really couldn’t say because it was it was hard to imagine him liking Kyunghyun any more than he already did. When he said told Sunyoung that, both she and Chanyeol laughed at him.

Taeil hated it and so he left. But he kept thinking about what they said and reexamine the information he had. In that light, not only did Taeil manage to unveil a bit of what Kyunghyun must be feeling but his own feelings too.

At first, he was happy. He did _like_ like Kyunghyun. He loved her very much. She was a valuable companion to him, yes, but he was also, in a way, attracted to her.

Taeil felt like jumping and dancing so he did. He sang a bit too, or more than just a bit. It was a glorious feeling, recognizing his affection for Kyunghyun and that she felt the same.

The feeling didn’t last. What was he to do even if she did return his feelings? They lived in different worlds. Taeil couldn’t let this continue. There was absolutely nothing he could give her.

That summer, Taeil never strayed far from her grandmother’s house in the hopes that he would catch Kyunghyun the minute she arrived. When she did, Taeil became so overwhelmed by his affection for her that he almost threw caution to the wind and launched himself at her.

But he didn’t because he was scared to death of being found out by her family. He waited until he could get Kyunghyun alone, which was when she was making her way to his forest.

A reserved person by nature, Taeil spoke very little. But for the first time in their friendship, their first meeting after not seeing each other for a year was painfully awkward. Taeil realized in that moment that he was scared of being rejected, not rejecting her, which he had prepared himself for.

“I'd be a bitch if I didn’t tell you, especially since we didn’t really say goodbye properly last time,” Kyunghyun began, because there was no way Taeil would have make the first move. “But I’m not coming around to visit anymore.”

The news shocked Taeil. The possibility of him never seeing her again suddenly became very real, as though all along he had fooled himself into thinking he could live with it.

He couldn’t.

“I _like_ like you. I fancy you. I don’t want to be without you.” Once he started, he couldn’t stop. “I love you, Han Kyunghyun.”

To his horror, she burst into tears. Worse, she started alternating between laughing and sobbing. “I thought you’d never say it!”

Making things work was surprisingly easy because Kyunghyun had known all along that there was something “not quite right” with Taeil and had years to make come to terms with being in love with someone who wasn't human. Once he introduced her to his world, the world of dreams, Kyunghyun turned out to be adept at maintaining awareness in as well as manipulating dream essence to suit her needs.Through a lot of digging and bribes, she found out that there was an existing market involving dreams. Extraction, the art of infiltrating the mind of any person to steal information, was an actual line of work and Taeil had the upper hand in it. More than that, Kyunghyun genuinely had an interest in making a career out of corporate espionage.

It was Kyunghyun who decided to build a proper business by forming a team of extractors. It was Kyunghyun who set up the fast food restaurant that worked as a cover as well as a day job for many of their team members. It was Kyunghyun who brokered deals, including one that involved the kidnapping of the youngest son of the reigning family of Cheon.

As he stared into the eyes of a girl who looked like Kyunghyun back when she was a teenager, Taeil remembered it all. He remembered how little time he had to process that they were given the wrong information. That Do Kyungsoo was trained in dream manipulation and he had expected them. That his strength and precision far exceeded Kyunghyun’s abilities. That he had made a feint before shooting Kyunghyun in the head and Taeil was next.

And he remembered that his self-preservation kicked in and made the decision for him to jump out of Do Kyungsoo’s subconscious. He now recognized the man with his arm around his beloved. This was Do Kyungsoo’s aide, the man Taeil himself had bound and gagged after knocking him unconscious. The man whose subconscious that, without thinking, Taeil had hidden and barricaded himself in.

 _For what?_ Taeil thought before he realized that there was a sting in his neck. _She’s gone_ , he told himself as he fell to the floor.

Again, against all reason, Taeil’s body betrayed him. He clawed at his neck and pulled out an empty tranquilizer dart. He raised his head, his eyes meeting the eyes of a man who knew his life was forfeit. Then those eyes narrowed with determination and Taeil felt a sort of kinship with him.

Taeil had never needed to physically fight before he worked as an extractor. It was purely survival instincts that drove him to attack the young man who had then morphed into a monster made out of shadows and black fire. If it were up to Taeil, he would have let himself be killed.

Kyunghyun was gone. There was no one else Taeil would live for so why was he fighting death? Taeil let out a roar of anguish, his heart hurting more than whatever body part was being hacked at.

It hurt.

It hurt.

It still hurt as he pushed himself up on two human legs. Moon Taeil’s legs. It still hurt as he took stock of his surroundings and saw that he truly was alone in a more literal sense. It still hurt, up until a piece of paper in the shape of a bird slapped onto his face and distracted him.

It was a note made of dream essence, and Taeil knew that it was from the man who had failed to kill him.

 _I'm not your enemy_ , it read. _Let’s talk. This will lead you to where I am._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The [baku](http://yokai.com/baku/), or dream eater, is a Japanese mythical creature with Chinese roots. As its name would suggest, it devours nightmares and in some instances, even good dreams. See [also](http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-asia/baku-legend-dream-eater-002383). Yokwe is the Korean equivalent of the Japanese Yokai (or monsters). The ddokkaebi is a goblin and the gumiho is a nine-tailed-fox. I tried to make the way they speak sound distinctive so please forgive any awkwardness in their dialogue.
> 
> Cheon means 'heaven' in Sino-Korean.
> 
> Please feel free to check out [Tomorrow's Song](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8403766), a companion piece to the main story that sheds some light on other baku.


	5. Chapter 5

 

The starting price for real estates in Cheon were exorbitantly expensive since only the rich could live in the floating city. But like many young adults who couldn’t spend any more time with their immediate family members or housemates without finding a reason to pick on each other, Doyoung and Jaehyun, being best friends, decided to rent a space for just the two of them in Doyoung’s final year of university. Needless to say, even for a cheap apartment building in Central Cheon, there was never a need to take the stairs when they lived on the 156th floor and the elevators always worked perfectly. 

“‘In case of emergency, don’t use the elevators.’ This is an emergency, Jaehyun!” Jaehyun griped, pitching his a voice a few octaves higher.

“It  _ is _ an emergency. And I do  _ not _ sound like that,” Doyoung said. He would have added a few more choice words attacking Jaehyun’s person but although gravity should make their descent easier, he was out of breath.

Jaehyun on the other hand, being the more athletic of the two, looked none the worse for wear and kept having to pull back so Doyoung could catch up. “Since it’s an emergency, we should go back for the girl.”

Doyoung groaned. “This again?” The building sometimes rumbled and shook, but otherwise there was no sign of the danger they faced back in their apartment. Doyoung and Jaehyun didn’t exchange many words since they were so focused on running, but every few minutes Jaehyun would bring up this mysterious girl he insisted was with them.

“You two looked pretty cozy, why aren’t you more worried?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Jaehyun scowled, a look Doyoung rarely saw because he was mild-tempered and cheerful by nature. He had to remind himself that this wasn’t the time to admire how pretty Jaehyun’s flushed cheeks looked in contrast and how pink his lips were. As if he could read Doyoung’s mind, Jaehyun said, “I saw you kiss her.”

Doyoung’s mood plummeted. “You’re dreaming,” he said with as much venom as he could, shoving Jaehyun roughly with his shoulder as he overtook him. Bitterly, he thought that maybe it would have been better if there  _ was _ a girl he was as intimate with as Jaehyun suggested. At least then it would have warranted Jaehyun’s apparent jealousy and Doyoung could revel in it. 

His anger was replaced by concern when the building shook again. “Jaehyun! You okay?” Doyoung asked, spinning around at Jaehyun’s surprised exclamation. He caught Jaehyun just in time, sharing a relieved chuckle when Jaehyun said, “I’m okay. It’d be pretty bad if I squashed you.”

They quickly broke apart at the chilling sensation of having ice cold water thrown at them. Trails of shadow and smoke blew past them, converging into the man they saw earlier, sans the massive wings and now looking severely bruised and battered. He barely looked at Jaehyun, fixing a death glare on Doyoung. 

“Why are the stairs endless?” he accused Doyoung.

“Who are you?” Doyoung yelled back, even as he took a step back.

“Where’s the girl?” Jaehyun added, only to be ignored.

The man made an impatient sound at the back of his throat before opening a door that was previously not there. It lead them straight into a place Doyoung had never appreciated before: the lobby. Following his example, Doyoung and Jaehyun collapsed onto the ground in relief. But all too soon, the man recovered and jumped back on his feet. 

“We need to go back up there.” 

Spurred on more by anger and frustration than by bravery, Doyoung grabbed his leg. “Why should we listen to you?” 

He looked so surprised and conflicted that Doyoung felt less and less afraid of him. “To get out of here,” he said after a pause. Doyoung was annoyed, mostly because it took him so long to come up with an answer and he settled for one that raised more questions.

“Why don’t you sit down and tell us who you are and what’s going on first?” To Doyoung’s surprise, the man gave it some thought and sat back down. He conjured a paper bird and blew gently at it, sending the bird flying before it dissolved into sparks of gold. Then, like a spirit leaving a body, a perfect copy of the man got up and followed the paper bird.

“It might take a while for the dream eater to answer anyway,” the one still sitting with Doyoung and Jaehyun said, mostly to himself.

“What the hell?”

“The dream eater needs leave before we could go back to connection point,” he explained.

“The chimera?” Jaehyun said. “You called it a dream eater? Then why did you attack Doyoung? What happened to the girl? Did the dream eater get to her?”

“Just stop it with this damn girl,” Doyoung snapped at Jaehyun. They glared at each other, but before Jaehyun could reply, the man chimed in.

“There was no girl. It was probably a projection of the dream eater’s subconscious, which Kim Doyoung shared. That would explain why you saw me attacking Kim Doyoung when I was actually aiming for the dream eater.”

Doyoung’s satisfaction in being proven right was short-lived. “That makes so much sense now,” Doyoung said sarcastically. 

He frowned, as though sensing that what Doyoung said didn’t match what he meant but wasn’t sure. “We’re in the dreamscape, the world of dreams. Nothing is real here except the three of us, and the dream eater. As for who I am, my name is Winwin. I am… I came here to neutralize the threat in Kim Doyoung’s subconscious.”

“The Nightmare,” Jaehyun said quietly. Doyoung and Winwin jumped at his icy tone. “I remember now.” He turned to Doyoung, his expression grim. “You’ve been in a coma for three months, Hyung. After the kidnapping incident with your boss. They told me that you couldn’t wake up because a Nightmare was keeping you trapped. And they wanted my help.”

Winwin nodded uneasily. “A Nightmare is a… mal… uh… something with a ‘v’...” 

“Malevolent?” Jaehyun suggested.

“Yes. A bad spirit. Dream eaters generally leave people alone and only feed on bad dreams.  But sometimes they can turn into Nightmares and eat good dreams and leave the bad. This one was meant to infiltrate Vice President Do Kyungsoo’s subconscious, but it ended up in Kim Doyoung’s instead.” 

“My boss? But I don’t remember anything about a kidnapping,” Doyoung said, crossing his arms in doubt.

“The more you dream, the more you forget,” Winwin said solemnly, as though he was reciting from memory. “As Jung Jaehyun said, Kim Doyoung has been asleep for three months. The dream eater was using you as a host. It built a fortress in your subconscious so that it couldn’t be extracted".

Winwin pushed himself to his feet and brushed dust off himself. “The dream eater has left the connection point. We need to go there first.” He looked pointedly at Doyoung.

“What?” Doyoung said, unnerved.

“What is with you and stairs?”

The scenery had changed, and they were no longer in the lobby, but at the bottom of stone steps that Doyoung didn’t recognize. Walking down slowly towards them and disappearing into the ether were lots of copies of Jaehyun. Instinctively, Doyoung reached for the real Jaehyun’s hand. His Jaehyun.

At the top of the blessedly short stairs was their apartment. But Winwin told them to move along to another set of steps, this one made of white marble. 

“The plan was for Jung Jaehyun, the person closest to Kim Doyoung, to build a connection between both of your subconsciousness,” he said, leading the way.

“And that’s where you came in?” Jaehyun said.

“Yes. I jumped into your subconscious, which is where we’re going to now.”   


Jaehyun made a soft sound of assent. “So are you fighting him now?”

“Excuse me?”

“When you split into two, the other you disappeared,” Doyoung explained. He looked at Jaehyun to see if he got it right. Jaehyun smiled at him and squeezed his hand. 

“No, I’m talking to him. Violence is never the answer,” Winwin said with a shake of his head and a wry grin. He was probably thinking about the time he had attacked the dream eater back in their apartment and was badly hurt.

When they reach the next landing, it turned out to be an empty grass field on a cloudless afternoon. Doyoung recognized this as a spot near their old high school’s track field and the place where Jaehyun spent most of his time back then. “It’s safer to have the dreamer wake up on their own, so I’m building a gate here,” Winwin explained, conjuring various geometric shapes with sharp hand movements. “Once Jung Jaehyun steps through it, he will wake up and I will leave.”

“What about Doyoung-hyung?” Jaehyun said.

“Opening a gate through Kim Doyoung would take too long. I told you that the dream eater built a fortress, but that’s not all. There are now three month’s worth of accumulated dream essence blocking all exits. The window for the connection point Jung Jaehyun made is only meant to open for one hour in real time.”

Doyoung stiffened. Sensing his distress, Jaehyun’s grip on his hand tightened. “That’s not what I meant,” he said with a forced calmness.

“What do you mean then?” Winwin said distractedly. A barricade suddenly materialized around the partially built gate. Winwin spun around with a gasp, knives raised with both hands and battle stance at the ready at the sign of a new threat. But the only people there was an equally shocked Jaehyun and a furious Doyoung. A glass wall separated them and Winwin.

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Winwin said slowly, his voice distorted by the glass.

“I don’t,” Doyoung agreed. He hadn’t been planning on doing anything really. All he wanted was to stop Winwin and protect Jaehyun, and it seemed as if the reality around them bent to his will. “But I do know that you’re not here to help and that you’ve been using us.”

Winwin sheathed his knives then held his hands up in a show of innocence. “If Jung Jaehyun doesn’t wake up on his own in time, they’ll force him to and it will damage both your brains. Do you want that to happen?”

The glass wall shimmered as Doyoung faltered. “No,” Doyoung said, and the glass gained back its strength. “But you’re not leaving me behind.”

“I don’t know how to do that,” Winwin said, looking regretful.

This time it was Jaehyun who spoke up. “What? So you’re only after the dream eater? They told me this could help Doyoung-hyung.”

Winwin bit his lip and it was in that moment that Doyoung wondered if he was younger than them and if he was just following orders. But before they could hear what Winwin had to say, the other Winwin arrived along with the dream eater in his human form. Everyone stayed silent but guarded as both Winwins fused together, even the dream eater. 

The newly merged Winwin nodded sharply at the dream eater. He took his hand and both of them slowly faded away. The last words Doyoung heard were, “I'm sorry. I won’t use you anymore.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> It'd be great if you could leave me comments/thoughts/theories. This fic is pushing a lot of boundaries for me as a writer so I'm pretty unsure of how it's going to be received.


End file.
